Late 1980s Sugano-era Koetsu Rosewood "Short Body" (often referred to simply as the modern Rosewood Standard or Red T).
Key Identification Features
- The Body Style: The very early, rare original Koetsu Rosewoods (early 1980s) featured a "Long Body" or "Longbase" shape. By the mid-to-late 1980s, Yoshiaki Sugano transitioned production to the shorter, more compact 24mm body style to allow better compliance and physical compatibility with standard modern tonearms.
- Gold Pins: Older vintage Koetsu cartridges from the Sugano era are distinctly identified by their gold-plated output pins. Later production runs transitioned to silver-colored pins.
- 4-Digit Serial Number: While Koetsu serial numbers are famously chaotic and unmapped by a public master registry, 4-digit numbers typically isolate the cartridge to original, mid-period hand-built units by Yoshiaki Sugano before production volume expanded into 5-digit sequences later in the decade.
- The Baseplate: True to this specific short-body era, the baseplate will typically feature smooth mounting holes without threaded inserts, requiring standard nuts and bolts to mount to your headshell.
Performance Profile
Connoisseurs value this specific era for its hallmark "Koetsu magic"—a deeply emotional, warm, and mid-range-forward musical character. Unlike analytical modern cartridges, this generation focused on luxurious timbres, smooth rolled-off highs, and an incredibly organic, lifelike presentation of vocal and acoustic tracks
